In The Shark Tank

This is just a reminder that the first of four open casting calls for ABC’s Shark Tank will be taking place today (Saturday June 6th) in Los Angeles. Auditions well be take place at the Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown (map) between 9AM and 4PM make sure you arrive early. You will also need to fill out this application form.

Please be prepared to speak about the following in your casting interview:

1. What’s your name and your business?
2. How much money do you need from investors and why?  Be specific.  How will it be used?
3. What percentage of your company/idea/product are you willing to give up (e.g., 10%, 40%)?
4. What do you do for a living and where are you from?
5. When did you start inventing or become an aspiring entrepreneur?  What influenced this decision?
6. Please describe your product/invention/business idea.
7. Make your pitch!
Examples of interesting information:
• What is it?  Is it patented?
• How or why does it work? (Do a demonstration if you can.)
• What’s the market for this and why?
• How did you come up with the idea?
• Why is your idea the next best thing?
8. How much have you invested in your business? What would happen if you can’t get your business off the ground?
9. What does your business mean to you?
10. What is your ultimate goal for your business?
11. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
12. What do your family and/or friends think of your business?

Make sure you tell them that you learned about the casting call from InTheSharkTank.com or Tweet us at twitter.com/SharkTankABC

Good luck

Edit: if you still want to apply send your application to SharkTankCasting@yahoo.com

UPDATE: For casting information for Shark Tank season 3 click here

Its time to put your best foot forward and meet the Shark Tank casting team face to face. Shark Tank is hosting four open casting call audition in Los Angeles, Orlando, New York and Chicago. If you want to audition for the show and are in the area I would highly recommend you attend one of these auditions. You will need to fill out this application form, and arrive early.

LOS ANGELES
Satuday, June 6th
Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown
711 S. Hope St.
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

ORLANDO
Thursday, June 11th
Sheraton Hotel Orlando Downtown
60 S. Ivanhoe Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32804
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

NEW YORK
Saturday, June 13th
Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge
333 Adams St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

CHICAGO
Satuday, June 13th
Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown/Lakefront
511 N. Columbus Dr.
Chicago, IL 60611
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

For those of you not in the area remember you can still apply by email: SharkTankCasting@yahoo.com with your name, age, contact info, a recent photo, and a brief, NON-CONFIDENTIAL description of your idea. Tell them In The Shark Tank sent you.

There is no doubt in my mind that Shark Tank will make or break some companies. Even if you don’t get a deal with the Sharks, your company will just been advertised to millions of people for free (well almost free).
ABC had previously aired two seasons of the show called American Inventor, a group of inventors were chosen and given $50,000 and expert help to develop their product and then judges and viewers pick the winner of the $1 million prize. The problem with American Inventor was that most of the inventors do not benefit from the exposure they got from TV. Their products were not ready to be sold and by the time they were most of the audience had forgotten about them. Businesses that pitch on Shark Tank will hopefully be ready to sell their product, meaning the exposure that the show brings will lead to increased sales.

Now something to keep in mind when applying for Shark Tank, the producers have the right to between 2% and 10% of gross revenue of your business for three years.

… as a condition of my participation on the Series, Producer or its designee shall receive an irrevocable option to take a perpetual ten percent (10%) royalty of 100% of the gross receipts derived from the idea, product, invention, service or business that I present to the “sharks” …

Update: I mistakenly quoted a unreliable source. To clarify Shark Tank has the right to 2% of net revenues, if and only if they decided to activate it. Meaning if your business becomes the next Google then I would assume they would activate it but for most business it would not.

You will have to examine the cost-benefit of giving up, up to 10% 2% in exchange for the huge exposure you’ll get from prime time television.

Last week I posted a first look at Shark Tank.  I have been able to pull it out four companies that appeared in the video.

WiSpots
WiSpots provides interactive centers for medical waiting areas. Which helps to generate additional revenue and educates patients.

LifeBelt
Lifebelt The device that is installed in cars to ensure that all the occupants are wearing their seatbelts. The vehicle will not start if the driver is not buckled up, and if the seatbelt is removed while the car is running the radio will turn off and loud annoying noise will come out of the radio until the seatbelt is re-buckled.

Mr. Tod’s Pie Factory
Mr. Tod’s sells personal sized pie, they are very popular in Somerset, New Jersey and they currently operate two retail locations.

College Foxes Packing Boxes
College Foxes Packing Boxes provide organization, moving and unpacking services.

When Shark Tank airs this summer we will find out if these companies can sink or swim and if the exposure helped them grow.

ABC adds Shark Tank to its fall line up, it will air Tuesday at 8pm. The show will start this summer and continue running this fall.
Shark Tank will be up against other reality TV heavy waits like Biggest Loser and So You Think You Can Dance.

From Mark Burnett, executive producer of Survivor and The Apprentice, and Sony Pictures Television, comes Shark Tank, an exciting, new reality show that gives budding entrepreneurs the chance to make their dreams come true and become successful — and possibly wealthy — business people. But the entrepreneurs must first try to convince five tough, multi-millionaire tycoons to part with their own hard-earned cash and give them the funding they need to jumpstart their ideas.

In these trying economic times, it’s difficult for an individual possessing a dream or even a working small business poised for growth to get a loan for a risky venture. Whether it be an imaginative enhancement for an existing product, a family recipe that has all the ingredients to become a profitable culinary treat, or the latest technological gadget that could take the world by storm, most of these dreams die an early death because no one dared take a financial chance on someone with an unproven and oftentimes outrageous proposal. Many of these people now see Shark Tank as their last chance at success. Some have been laboring on their ideas for years or even decades, have invested large amounts of money, and are being pressured to throw in the towel by friends and family. Others have simply never had access to the means to live out their dreams, until now. Enter the Sharks of Shark Tank — five multi-millionaires who lifted themselves up by their bootstraps to make their own entrepreneurial dreams come true and turned their ideas into empires.

Each week, ambitious entrepreneurs from across the country will present their breakthrough business concepts, products, properties and services to the panel of ruthless investors. Their goal is to convince these merciless moguls to invest their own dollars in the concept. Convincing real-life millionaires to part with their own money is no easy task, because when the idea is poor, the Sharks will tear into the ill-prepared presenters and pass on the idea with a simple, “I’m out!” — sending them running for the exit.

But these Sharks aren’t just out for blood, they too have a goal: to own a piece of the next big idea. Entrepreneurs will be asked to give up a percentage of their companies’ equity to the Sharks in order to get the investment they need. But when the Sharks hear a really top-notch idea, and more than one of them wants to sink their teeth into it, a war between them will erupt. Then the once-desperate entrepreneur can rejoice when the Sharks reveal their true interest in the product and bid up the price of the investment.

The Sharks of Shark Tank are:

Barbara Corcoran
Kevin Harrington
Robert Herjavec
Daymond John
Kevin O’Leary

Mark Burnett, Clay Newbill and Phil Gurin are the executive producers of Shark Tank, based on the Japanese Dragon’s Den format created by Nippon Television Network Corporation. The series is from Sony Pictures Television.

Here is your opportunity to pitch to the Sharks. ABC’s Shark Tank is looking for entrepreneurs, inventors, promoters, creators and dreamers to audition. Entrepreneurs will pitch their business to five Multimillionaire investors (Sharks). The Entrepreneurs must then convince the Sharks to invest at least what they have asked for or they go home empty handed.

The Shark Tank will finally bring ABC and Mark Burnnet together. Burnnet has produced hit reality shows such as Survivor and the Apprentice for most major networks but this is the first time he has worked with ABC. The show was greenlighted back in March after the network liked the pilot, which was filmed in January. Seven episodes have been ordered.

Shark Tank is based of Dragon’s Den, a hit BBC show that follows a similar format.

If you are interested go to ABC.com for full casting information:

DO YOU HAVE THE NEXT GREAT MONEYMAKING IDEA? We are currently on the search for entrepreneurs, inventors, businesspersons, dreamers, promoters, creators, innovators, etc. If you feel you have a lucrative business idea but just can’t seem to secure the financial backing to get it off the ground then Shark Tank is just the show for you. Each episode features aspiring entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to moguls in hopes of landing investment funds. Apply now for your chance to enter the “Shark Tank” and see if your idea survives.

EMAIL US AT: SharkTankCasting@yahoo.com
Please include your name, age, contact info, a recent photo, and a brief, NON-CONFIDENTIAL description of your idea. Good luck.

Get ready to swim with the sharks. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Mark Burnett and ABC will bring the popular U.K. reality show “Dragon’s Den” to an American audience.

Entrepreneurs will pitch their business to five Multimillionaire investors (Sharks). The Entrepreneurs must then convince the Sharks to invest at least what they have asked for or they go home empty handed.

“People are looking to be entrepreneurs to get ahead, yet there’s no way anybody can go into a bank right now and get a loan,” Burnett said. “For these entrepreneurs, these sharks are their last stop.”

The ABC version will be called Shark Tank and will be bigger than previous shows.

“We have made bigger deals and more deals in our pilot than (other versions) make all season,” Burnett said.

“We’ve been excited about the ‘Dragon’s Den’ format for years, but we didn’t go forward at first because we thought it felt too small,” said Vicki Dummer, co-head of alternative at ABC.

The pilot was going to be shot in a huge auditorium, with the sharks seeing behind a desk. Unlike the U.K. and Canadian version where the space is small and intimate and the “Dragons” are seated in simple chairs. Some of the changes distracted from what made Dragon’s Den great: the interpersonal tension between ambitious entrepreneurs struggling to convince five strangers to part with their money.

“The layers we added for a big huge show we’ve ended up peeling back to make the show more like the original,” Dummer said. “The core essence of the show works, and they’ve done a terrific job with it.”

Although no airdate has been announced I would assume that it will premiere next season.

“What country on earth is more entrepreneurial and risk taking than the United States of America? Here we have businesses and jobs being created, and it’s a great feeling.” Says Burnett

The blood is in the water, but who will be Mark Burnett’s Sharks?

Mark Burnett, new show Shark Tank is in the middle of a search for interesting entrepreneurs who are looking for financing to take them to the next level. Shark Tank is a TV show based on Dragons Den which originated in Japan. The show has been adapted for different markets and now airs internationally. Entrepreneurs pitch their ideas and business to multi-millionaire business men, trying to convince them to invest in exchange for a percentage of their company.

Pitches rang from the crazy

To amazing

My question to you is who would you like to see as the Sharks this season?

According to an entry on shop4patents.com, Shark Tanks is set to start filming in December. With the show airing sometime early in 2009.

We are in the process of putting our investors together.
We have a lot of interest and there will probably be a few celebrity judges on the panel, as well.
The show will be called The Shark Tank and will air on ABC. It is run along the same lines as a very popular British show called The Dragon’s Den.
As far as when the show will shoot:
We are looking at the 2nd week in Dec., but this could change according to the schedules of our “sharks”.
It is a pilot, but it will air sometime early next year (2009). We expect the show to be very successful.

I am happy to see the show is moving this quickly.